Mr R. B. Tennent’s Retirement from Director-Generalship

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 97, Issue 2, 15 August 1958, Page 99

Mr R. B. Tennent’s Retirement from Director-Generalship

\A/ITH his retirement from the position of Director-General of ™ ' Agriculture at the end of this month Mr. R. B. Tennent completes 38 years of service with the Department during which he has done much, at first as an instructor in the field and later in administrative posts, to develop and establish the high reputation of the extension services of the Department.

KIR TENNENT was wont to remark that he was born at •*■*■*• the same time as the Department. He entered its

service at Dunedin in 1920 as Instructor in Agriculture, and it would not be too much to say that he and the Department matured together, as his hand was in much of the shaping of the present organisation of its services.

Throughout his service promotions as Fields Superintendent, Director of the Fields (now Extension) Division, Assistant Director-General, Deputy Director-General, and Director-General the qualities that made him an efficient instructor in agriculture guided his work in his subsequent administrative posts. As an instructor he rapidly became a leader in the science and practice of farming in Otago and Southland. He initiated improved farming practices which, though commonplace today, were innovations in the 1920’5. He advocated and demonstrated more efficient grass farming practices, particularly phosphatic topdressing, liming, and efficient grazing management; he pioneered irrigation farming in Central Otago and irrigation' practices both in Otago and Canterbury are largely based on his early work. In all this work he showed the highest attributes of an instructor, for besides advocating and demonstrating improved practices, he carried the farmers with him and saw his suggestions put to work. Subsequently as Fields Superintendent, Dunedin, he trained a staff of junior instructors in the principles and practice of farm advisory work. As Director of the Fields Division : he inspired the Division to give its best to the. service of farming. His success lay in recognising that the

Division’s work was in the hands of district instructors in agriculture and that his sphere as Director was to lead and inspire, rather than direct. The Young Farmers’ Club movement had his wholehearted support from its inception in Otago and he has continued to do much to help the development of the federation to its present place as an indispensable part of the farming industry. He is an authority on grassland farming and in 1948 visited Britain to assist in a campaign for grassland development. In 1956 he went to Japan to advise the Japanese Government on the development of hill country pastures ' and livestock management. Mr Tennent represented New Zealand overseas on many occasions. He undertook a mission for UNRRA to China in 1946 to investigate the advisability of New Zealand’s supplying dairy cattle to China. He attended the third meeting of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers at Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in 1949

and visited the United States to promote interest in New Zealand seeds. In 1950 he returned to establish trials of New Zealand grass seed mixtures there. Mr Tennent led the New Zealand delegation to the conference of FAO in Rome in 1953 and later went to the United States of America for discussions regarding, the sale of New Zealand seeds. He was leader of a • New Zealand delegation to Japan in 1955 to investigate the fused calciummagnesium process for the manufacture of phosphatic fertiliser and has been to Australia several times and to Nauru and Ocean Island. He was recently appointed New Zealand’s representative on the British Phosphate Commission. He led delegations to the FAO conference in Rome and to the first of annual discussions between New Zealand and Britain on agricultural and trade policies in 1957, and was a member of the official delegation to visit London in April this year to discuss with the United Kingdom Government a revision ,of the 1932 Ottawa

Agreement. Subsequent to the appointment of this delegation the Minister of Agriculture, Mr C. F. Skinner, went to London to discuss problems relating to markets for meat and dairy produce in the United Kingdom and Mr Tennent accompanied him as official adviser. Mr Tennent remained in London to discuss the Ottawa Agreement when Mr Skinner returned to New Zealand. After the talks in London Mr Tennent visited Rome to discuss problems of the meat trade with Italy. Mr Tennent’s wide practical knowledge of farming and his close association with the Department’s experimental and extension work made his opinion widely sought and valued by industry organisations and his services, though constantly called on, were always cheerfully given to any project furthering the interests of primary production. Many tributes paid to him on the eve of his retirement testify to the high regard in which he was held by both those with whom and for whom he worked.